inspiration in modernising our performance and post production ideas

We were shown numerous adaptations of Macbeth, but came to the conclusion that our group sort of wanted to steer away from that because we wanted our work to be unique. But we did watch the 1996 version of Romeo and Juliet and quite liked the fact they were dressed modern and everything was set in modern times but the text was still dated to Shakespearean times.

We were truly inspired by the fact of having it modern because the audience members of today's generation would find it hard watching something they don't particularly understand so to make them engaged and enjoy our production we added a rap at the start when the witches say their entering lines in the very first scene. We also decided to keep costume very modern because of the inspiration to the Romeo and Juliet modern theme; although we dressed with status , we had Macbeth in a suit , most noble men like Malcolm in casual suits , i.e: shirt and blazer but no tie; lady Macbeth in a dress, and most noble women in dresses.

We kept with the conservative dress code because we weren't meant to be like street type , we still wanted to show that we had status and were in a regal setting but we didn't like the idea of suits of armour and dated clothing because it's too old fashioned we wanted this to be Macbeth 2019 not 1619.

For soundtrack ideas were really inspired by game of thrones. It is of similar genre as in there is a monarchy and there are battle scenes. It fit well when we had tense scenes such as Duncan's murder and battle scenes for example; the murderer scene and Malcolm and Macbeth's showdown.
We also used a range of modern music. There is a scene where there is a party going on at Duncan's castle and Macbeth comes on stage intoxicated, in our official production JP who played Macbeth played to the audience by dancing and he got quite a lot of jeer and hype from them. We wanted to have modern music because ether majority of young people listen to that and our main goal was to connect with the audience and help them to engage better with the old fashioned story we trying to tell. At the end , when Malcolm is crowned king , we had a song relating to crowning as it faded into a blackout. it worked really well because it added a nice finish to quite a smooth ending and the audience loved it.

During production we always had the idea of the witches entering in the first scene from the audience. As our main idea for the witches were like they were the hidden directors for the play they caused any chaos and actions for this ; they provided the prophesies it was up for the character to fulfil them , but we liked the idea that since they entered from the audience they were somewhat like an audience member watching the plot unfold as they caused it . But also the audience don't expect them to be there so they go " where did they come from?" Which the characters also ask too so it adds to the mystery and shadiness to their characters.

For the lights we liked the idea of thunder and lightning being present when the witches were on stage. It adds to the suspension of disbelief because obviously the audience know it's a play but with lightning and sound and believable acting skills , it takes it away from being a play and makes it more real for the audience.
When Macbeth killed Duncan we loved the idea that the stage lighting gets more red as the plot unfolds with each murder happening (Duncan's, Banquo's, macduff's family and young syward's) to show the fact that their guilt is getting bigger more blood is their hands and that corruption and devil like qualities is taking over.  However when Macbeth is later slayed, we liked the idea that the red would clear into a lighter blue , to evoke day time and also the fact that the castle is free from guilt and bad things happening now as it's been put to rest.

Overall I feel that our production of Macbeth worked well to a tee because we had the acting there, we had Shakespeare's work present in our speech but all that was different was the time period and clothing being modern. The audience seemed to enjoy it which is what we wanted, because that's who needs to be impressed and understand the work they came to see.